MOSCOW
— A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 295 people aboard was shot down
on Thursday by a surface-to-air missile, U.S. officials have confirmed.
The airliner was traveling at about 30,000 feet, according to the
tracking information from a military spy satellite. The satellite,
however, was unable to detect where exactly the missile was fired.
Military
and intelligence analysts are using mathematical formulas, high-speed
computers and other sensors to try to pin down the missile’s point of
origin. Other analysts will work with Ukrainian authorities to recover
and analyze pieces of the missile and the aircraft to help determine
what kind of missile was fired, the officials said.
The
plane crashed and burned on Thursday in an eastern Ukraine wheat field
near the Russian border, in an area roiled by fighting between
pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian
officials called the crash an act of terrorism. Vice President Joseph
R. Biden Jr. of the United States, speaking in Detroit, said the plane
“apparently has been shot down. Shot down, not an accident. Blown out of
the sky.”
News on the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.
“This
is truly a grave situation,” Mr. Biden said. “Nearly 300 souls have
been lost. The families need consolation and our prayers, and many
questions need to be answered. And we’ll get those answers, and we’ll
take action accordingly.” He added, “It’s important we get to the bottom
of this sooner than later because of the possible repercussions that
can flow beyond from this, beyond the tragic loss of life.”
Ukraine’s
president, Petro O. Poroshenko, said in a statement that he was calling
for an immediate investigation of the crash of the plane, which was en
route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Amsterdam. There were no reported
survivors among the 280 passengers and 15 crew members.
Mr.
Poroshenko said he had called the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, to
express his condolences and to invite Dutch experts to assist in the
investigation. “I would like to note that we are calling this not an
incident, not a catastrophe, but a terrorist act,” Mr. Poroshenko said.
Malaysia’s
prime minister, Najib Razak, called for an investigation at the crash
site and the unfettered cooperation of local authorities. “Malaysia is
unable to verify the cause of this tragedy,” he said.
“No
stone will be left unturned,” he added. “If it transpires that the
plane was, indeed, shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must be
brought to justice.”
President Obama spoke with Mr. Poroshenko and Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, from aboard Air Force One.
Reporters
arriving at the scene near the town of Grabovo described dozens of
lifeless bodies strewn about, mostly intact, in a field dotted with
purple flowers, with remnants of the plane scattered across a road lined
with fire engines and emergency vehicles. “It fell down in pieces,”
said one rescue worker as tents were set up to gather the dead.
One
passenger in a black sweater lay on her back, with blood streaming down
her face and her left arm raised. The carcass of the plane was still
smoldering, and rescue workers moved through the dark field with
flashlights. Dogs barked in the distance, and the air was filled with a
bitter smell.
A regional airline official said the plane had been flying at about 33,000 feet when radar lost track of it.
For
months, eastern Ukraine has been the scene of a violent pro-Russian
separatist uprising in which a number of military aircraft have been
downed. But this would be the first commercial airline disaster to
result from the hostilities.
Despite
the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, the commercial airspace over that part
of the country is heavily trafficked and has remained open. Aeroflot,
Russia’s national carrier, announced that it had suspended all flights
to Ukraine for at least three days.
Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the mysterious loss of another Boeing 777 flight in March,
said it had lost contact with Thursday’s flight, MH17, over Ukraine but
offered no further details immediately. Mr. Razak said initially in a
Twitter post that he was “shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed.
We are launching an immediate investigation.”
President
Obama, who one day earlier had announced strengthened sanctions against
Russia over its support for the eastern Ukraine separatists, spoke by
telephone with Mr. Putin, who raised the issue of the reports of the
downed plane, White House officials said. Josh Earnest, the White House
press secretary, said Mr. Obama had been briefed about the plane crash.
Later
Mr. Obama said the United States government was working to determine
whether any Americans had been aboard the flight. Russia’s Interfax news
agency said there had been no Russians aboard.
Maps of the Crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
A Malaysia Airlines flight with nearly 300 people aboard
crashed in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border on Thursday.
There
was no immediate word from the Kremlin about the substance of the
Obama-Putin telephone call. The Kremlin put out a short statement saying
that Mr. Putin had a previously scheduled telephone conversation with
Mr. Obama.
“The
parties had a detailed discussion about the crisis in Ukraine,” the
statement said. Mr. Putin repeated the need for an immediate cease-fire
and objected to what he said was Ukrainian army fire striking inside
Russia.
Russian news agencies said Mr. Putin also spoke by telephone to the president of Malaysia and offered his condolences.
Mr. Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, said in a statement said he was “deeply shocked” by the crash.
“A
lot remains unclear about the reason, circumstances and those on
board,” he said. “I have just called with the Ukrainian president.”
The
Dutch state news agency quoted tour operator WTC.nl as saying that
around 20 to 30 Dutch and Belgian citizens had been on board.
Andrei
Purgin, deputy prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the
insurgent group in eastern Ukraine, denied in a telephone interview that
the rebels had anything to do with the loss of the passenger jet. He
said that the rebels had shot down Ukrainian planes before but that
their antiaircraft weapons could reach only to around 4,000 meters, far
below the cruising level of passenger jets.
Amateur Video of Malaysia Airlines Crash
After a Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in Ukraine on Thursday, several amateur videos were posted online.
Publish Date July 17, 2014.
“We don’t have the technical ability to hit a plane at that height,” he said.
He
said that the plane had apparently come down in an area of Ukrainian
military operations and that it was not out of the question that the
Ukrainians themselves shot it down.
“Remember the Black Sea plane disaster,” he said, referring to the 2001 crash
of a Siberian Airlines passenger jet bound for Novosibirsk from Tel
Aviv that the Ukrainians shot down by accident during a military
training exercise.
Anton
Geraschenko, an adviser at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said on his
Facebook page that the Malaysia Airlines plane had been brought down by a
Russian-made Buk, or Beech, antiaircraft system. Russian missile
systems are named for trees.
A
reference book published by Rosoboronexport, the Russian state weapons
export monopoly, describes the Buk antiaircraft missile system as
designed to target both low- and high-flying aircraft, to a maximum
height of 72,000 feet.
Mr.
Geraschenko wrote that earlier Thursday people in eastern Ukraine
supporting the central government had reported seeing a Buk system moved
from the town of Torez toward the town of Snezhnoye.
A
commander of a rebel unit in Donetsk, said, “We could have shot down
three planes over Donetsk yesterday, but we didn’t because they could
have been civilians.” He said the rebel forces did not have the Buk
system.
In
comments broadcast on Ukrainian television, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor
of Kiev and former heavyweight boxing champion, said the crash
illustrated the risks to peace in Europe of the fighting in eastern
Ukraine. “This is not just a local conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk but a
full-scale war in the center of Europe,” he said. “I’m certain the
international community this time will pay attention and understand.”
Correction: July 17, 2014
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Ukraine’s president. He is Petro O. Poroshenko, not Poroschenko.
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Ukraine’s president. He is Petro O. Poroshenko, not Poroschenko.
Correction: July 17, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the title of Najib Razak. He is the prime minister, not president, of Malaysia. The article also misstated the direction a Siberian Airlines passenger jet was flying before it was shot down by Ukraine in 2001. It was flying from Israel, not to it.
An earlier version of this article misstated the title of Najib Razak. He is the prime minister, not president, of Malaysia. The article also misstated the direction a Siberian Airlines passenger jet was flying before it was shot down by Ukraine in 2001. It was flying from Israel, not to it.
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